Government Intrusion And Civil Liberties Essay

3637 words - 15 pages

Most people have either read or heard of the book 1984 in some point in their high school career. Some may see it as just fictional literature that we learn in English class, but it could become seeing as to how our government is handling national security. In 1984, the author, George Orwell talks about a society in which one group of people runs society and everyone is under surveillance. This was something that people in the 1980s would not think possible, so how could Orwell have thought of this plot when writing the book during the 1940s? It could have been due to the progress in technology such as radio, film, television. The fear of government interference could have also been ...view middle of the document...

The government’s intentions in committing these actions are positive but the way things are being handled is not correct in terms of violating individuals rights in researching threats of terrorism. People clearly do not want outside interference in their own personal lives as proven in the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut where the use of contraceptives was declared constitutional under the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment having the idea of ‘right to privacy’.
With that being said and after almost11 years since 9/11, there has not been a major threat of terrorists being in the United States, so the government should stop focusing on its citizens as being potential threats to national security and focus on other items in their agenda if information on possible terrorists in the U.S. is a small possibility. Well, how exactly is the government spying on its citizens? With technology’s rapid improvements over the course of the years, there are many ways for the government to watch, listen to or track U.S. citizens. The government’s increase and use of such techniques has gotten to the point where millions of people are being spied on, to what they argue, is protecting national security (define). These techniques consist of using drones, wiretapping and GPS trackers.
Drones are being small devices that capture HD pictures of people and property (New York Times). Outside of the U.S., these small cameras are used in war to protect soldiers from entering very dangerous areas by instead having them control the drones, and what is even more helpful is that some drones even have missiles (SLR).
Another technique is through wiretapping which is exactly what it sounds like. Wiretapping is when an outsider is “…connecting a listening device to the circuit carrying information between phones…” and disables the microphone so that the phone they are using becomes a listening device but to avoid having to stay on the phone at all times, the outsider can create a voice-activated recorder and use a bug that will eventually lead to sending or encoding the conversation according to the article, (How Wiretapping Works).

The final tactic used is a GPS tracker which is not used as much as the previous two (why?). A GPS tracker is simply when someone installs a GPS on, most likely, an automobile and follows the driver’s destinations as occurred in the case of U.S. v. Jones where the U.S. government, without a search warrant, placed a tracking device into Jones’ car (supremecourt.gov).
One may ask how these practices are even being allowed. First off, they are not supposed to be occurring because of our Fourth Amendment rights that say no unreasonable search or seizure can be made without a search warrant given by a court, but two laws that are allowing this to happen are the Patriot Act and Indefinite Detention. The Patriot Act (define) simply allows the spying of U.S. citizens by the government and allowing institutions to report...

1282 words - 6 pages
on this fear by targeting aliens unjustly because they were not US citizens and were punished by deporting them on a mere suspicion of being involved with a â€œterrorist organization.â€ The Patriot Act defies civil liberties and is one of the most unconstitutional acts present in our government today.
The Bush Administration had the intelligence tools set in place to prevent the catastrophe of 9/11 from transpiring but neglected to use them

422 words - 2 pages
Civil rights are those personal and property rights recognized by governments and guaranteed by constitutions and laws. Although these rights were once conceived of as civil liberties, as limits placed on the government on behalf of individual liberty, government is no longer the sole concern of civil rights policy.Recent legislation and court decisions have extended the zone of civil rights to include protection from arbitrary or discriminatory

3369 words - 14 pages
the right to a fair and speedy trial, as outlined in the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution (law.jrank.org). The power of state government to raise and lower taxes prevents the federal government from having complete control over how much one pays for a product.
The difference between rights and liberties is the fact that civil liberties protect people against actions of the government and civil rights are the actions of government used to

1779 words - 8 pages
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror
Robin Blankenship
POL201: American National Government (GSI1325J)
Instructor
Amy Lyons
January 22, 2013
In our Nation’s history, we have to consider the legality of the Government’s concerning our civil liberties. The habeas Corpus Act and the War on Terror are full of facts and issues that have brought me to address areas that cover the historical evolution, the suspension of

2584 words - 11 pages
democratic societies. Democracy, it may be fair to argue, has become the fundamental standard of political legitimacy in the current era, and the means of achieving protection for the individuals' Civil rights and liberties. 3Traditionally, parliament provides a means of allowing the will of the people to influence government towards the maintenance of human rights through free election and secret ballots aided in operation by the free pressA

2357 words - 10 pages
valid concern for the privacy of our country’s citizens. Both sides of this issue will be addressed as well as my own analysis of this topic.
There is quite a bit of history regarding monitoring public internet communications. Some forms of electronic surveillance have been around since the Civil War. The 4th Amendment is a citizen’s primary protection against unreasonable government searches and seizures. As technologies advance the meaning of

269 words - 2 pages
into power, Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg of the Reich government, to issue decrees to suspend all given civil liberties of the German people and politicians. The Enabling Act that followed in March allowed Hitler and the Nazis to establish policies in not do much to stop the endless tirade of hate directed at the Jews. When it became compulsory and military training was introduced, one million people refused to join the Hitler Youth

667 words - 3 pages
pluralism; equality before the law; the right to petition elected officials for redress of grievances; due process; civil liberties; human rights; and elements of civil society outside the government. In the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute, but in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the dominant principle is that of parliamentary sovereignty (though in practice judicial independence is generally

2423 words - 10 pages
terrorist suspects, because they believe that their security and that of their families depends on aggressive measures by the government to combat terrorism. The current debate over privacy is, in many ways, specious, and it has become a cliché , as T.A. Taipale has written, "that every compromise we make to civil liberties in the 'war on terrorism' is itself a victory for those who would like to destroy our way of life".4 While most Americans

932 words - 4 pages
that affects every single citizen within the United States every single day. It is the foundation of our country. It provides a single legal basis for all the fundamental rights of the citizens in form of the Bill of Rights. It clearly defines the basic civil liberties, and the power and responsibilities of the federal government in the first ten amendments. Secondly, it functions as a strong framework to ensure peace and order in the country. As

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